Date Published: 02/19/10

ARE IMO, KADUNA, OGUN FAILED STATES? By Emmanuel Onwubiko 

An incredible pattern of intolerance to dissenting voices has emerged in most parts of Nigeria especially at the state and local government levels so much so that analysts are asking valid question whether democracy has a good chance of surviving in Nigeria for a long time to come. Kaduna, Imo and Ogun states stand out among the remaining federating units of Nigeria where there is a growing intolerance of voices of dissents from the state administrations and their supporters. 

In Kaduna state, political opponents of the state administration are constantly demonized, physically abused and harassed by the state police command even as opposition political meetings are totally outlawed not by any valid and democratically acceptable legislation but by brute force of the police readily made available to the peoples Democratic Party- led administration of Governor Namadi Sambo. 

One special attribute that marks the intimidation and physical abuse of political opponents in Kaduna as a special case is the laughable fact that even among the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, the elements that are opposed to the administrative style of Governor Namadi Sambo are constantly harassed and threatened with violence. 

In Ogun state, the last two years has witnessed series of intra-party squabbles between supporters and opponents of the current Governor Gbenga Daniel. The Ogun state House of Assembly has engaged in a supremacy battle with Governor Gbenga Daniel following differences on the transition or succession plan in 2011 or put simply, the members of the House of Assembly most of whom support the speaker of the Federal House of Representatives Dimeji Bankole are in disagreement with the state governor who is alleged to be plotting to handpick his successor after he would have completed his constitutionally agreed two terms of eight years by 2011. 

Imo state is particularly of grave concern because governance has consistently remained a mirage not just in the last three years that Ikedi Ohakim was declared the winner of a controversial election held twice in Imo state but the state in the last ten years has become terribly underdeveloped and the Billons of naira of federal allocations that accrued to the state can not be properly accounted for because virtually all parts of the state are going through tough times because the socio-economic infrastructures have collapsed. 

The only set of people not going through tough times is the cronies and acolytes of Governor Ikedi Ohakim including a particular traditional ruler. These persons will attack me for saying it as it is in Imo State. Most inhabitants of Imo state spoken to in Orlu, Owerri, Mbano, Mbaise told this writer that life in Imo state is like hell and that rather than implement measures to check the spread of poverty the state administration has indeed made it a point of duty to spread poverty. Emeka Nwankwo and Celestine Okoronkwo who spoke with me in Owerri said Imo state can be categorized as a failed state just as they also observed that democracy has died in virtually all the local government areas of the state following the failure of the current state authorities to conduct elections in line with section 7 of the 1999 constitution. 

Specifically, section 7 (1) of the constitution provides that; “The system of local government by democratically elected local government council is under this constitution guaranteed; and accordingly, the government of every state shall, subject to section 8 of this constitution, ensure their existence under a law which provides for the establishment, structure, composition, finance and functions of such councils”. 

Most people say that the absence of real democracy in the local council areas of Imo state is responsible for the unprecedented rate of poverty, unemployment, insecurity in the local government areas of the state so much so that kidnapping for ransoms has assumed a dangerous dimension. State sponsored abductions are also suspected in Imo state and this ugly trend must be investigated by the federal government and the police. 

The Guardian newspapers ran a story on Sunday February 14 th 2010 that the; “Anglican Bishop of Owerri Diocese, Dr. Cyril Okorocha, recently summoned priests, church workers and the congregation of the diocese at Cathedral of Transfiguration of our Lord (CATOL), Owerri, for special prayers to curb the spate of kidnappings and other crimes in the state.” 

Okorocha expressed disappointment that cases of kidnapping were continuing unabated, despite efforts by law enforcement agencies. He observed that the aberration had become the order of the day in Imo State, denouncing how a Bishop could be kidnapped in the country during the discharge his Christian duties.” 

Chief Mathew Omegara, a peoples Democratic Party Federal lawmaker in the House of Representatives who represents Onu Imo/Okigwe/Isiala Mbano Federal Constituency of Imo state raised alarm that Imo has unfortunately become a failed state under Ikedi Ohakim because of the Governor’s alleged dictatorial tendencies. 

Omegara who is the Deputy Chairman House Committee on Army sated thus;              

“In the state where I come from the Governor, Ikedi Ohakim does not even believe in election or democracy at the grassroots because he has not shown that he has the capacity to do so. There has never been any local government election since he came into being. What do you get? You get an abused people.  
Imo state people have been abused in the sense that everybody has been reduced to a beggar to the governor. So people no longer believe in themselves. If you are a very good man loved by your people and hope that your people are going to vote you in because you are good, then Imo state is not the place to be because what will now count is those who are in the good books of the governor. And I said this because if you look around you see that the rate of kidnapping and violent crime is on the rise in Imo state. There is the case of the Eze in Orodo who got his father and brother killed, and he himself kidnapped and people don’t know where he is now. And if you ask people they say Oh- the Eze was a vocal person against the intension of the Governor to perpetuate Iluoumuanya on the stool and maybe he is suffering because of that. But that is left for the Police and the security agencies to 
explore”. 

“Then you also have the recent violence in Aghara where they did something like that. I learnt that they went as far as using dynamites to kill people. Such incidences are on the increase and the danger there is that everybody is at risk”. 

“If you have someone who wants to be an emperor in governance, when he finishes with his perceived opponents or enemies as the case may be, he will come back to those who think they are his friends because he will always want to show that he is still a strong man. That is why people of goodwill should rise up and condemn what is going on in Imo state and say no we cannot take it anymore, we want local government elections. Even a rigged election is far better than no election at all. I am not saying that elections should be rigged, but people should be given the opportunity. You know, democracy should take root from the 
grassroots so that people will know that you have to be good and you have to have record of performance to get elected into an office”. “Then you will see people competing with good ideals, competing to be better than the other person so that their people will vote for them”.  

Omegara spoke further; “That is the only way to promote good governance and inculcate the knowledge of democracy from the grassroots before you come up. There is no need saying you elect national officers, you elect state assembly men, then you elect governor and then you elect president and the people at the grassroots know nothing about democracy. The only democracy they know is that whoever is governor, whatever he says you should do you do, you do it. If he said 
you should kill, you kill so that he will love you and follow it up with appointment. To that extent it is an abuse of the people, a denial of the fundamental human rights of the people”.  

On what he thinks the National Assembly should do by way of proffering solution to this matter? He said thus; “Just last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution making it mandatory that no vacuum should be created. That at the local government level Governors should conduct elections so that the people would come to understand the benefits of democracy. Because democracy is the government of the people, for the people, by the people, it is not government of the people by the Governor as is being practiced in Imo state of today. I can tell you that a Bill is in the offing to make it mandatory for government at the local level to be elected and that Bill should be able to capture the punishment for governors and any institutions that refuse to have elected officials right from the local level to the top”. 

The good people of Imo, Kaduna and Ogun States must ensure that their beloved States do not become failed states. 

*  Onwubiko heads Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.